Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

De­spite re­newed pub­lic con­dem­na­tion of the Gov­ern­ment and its ac­cep­tance of high­er salaries which take ef­fect this month, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said he is quite com­fort­able with the work of the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion (SRC).

On Thurs­day, the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) and the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) de­scribed the pay rise as a wicked, dis­grace­ful and hyp­o­crit­i­cal move by Gov­ern­ment.

Econ­o­mists Dr Vaalmik­ki Ar­joon and Dr In­dera Sage­wan al­so said politi­cians did not de­serve a pay rise be­cause they failed to suc­cess­ful­ly ex­e­cute their core du­ties, which in­clude en­sur­ing the econ­o­my grew.

When these views were put to the Prime Min­is­ter at his me­dia brief­ing yes­ter­day at White­hall. He said they were not sur­pris­ing.

“Lis­ten, I am not get­ting in­to that de­bate you know, all this does is tell you that we still have free­dom of ex­pres­sion in the coun­try. And I am not de­bat­ing the work. From this very podi­um I told you be­fore, hav­ing tak­en the Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion, the Par­lia­ment’s po­si­tion, I know there are dif­fer­ences of opin­ion on the mat­ter, so you are not telling me any­thing new there. There are dif­fer­ences of opin­ion,” he said.

When asked by Guardian Me­dia if he still be­lieves he did the right thing by ac­cept­ing the SRC’s rec­om­men­da­tions, Row­ley said, “I have not ad­vo­cat­ed for any­thing pub­licly per­son­al­ly and I have de­cid­ed, and I have told you be­fore, that I’m quite com­fort­able deal­ing with the work of the SRC. So, there is noth­ing new here to me, and I think peo­ple have their views and they can ex­press them as they go along.”

When re­mind­ed of the pub­lic dis­con­tent with his Cab­i­net’s de­ci­sion in the cur­rent so­cio-eco­nom­ic cli­mate, Row­ley said, “You can car­ry on that as much as you like.”

How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia dou­bled down telling the Prime Min­is­ter that these crit­i­cisms were com­ing from mem­bers of the pub­lic and not the per­son­al views of the me­dia house.

“You are not the pub­lic,” Row­ley said.

Re­fer­ring to the rev­e­la­tions he made dur­ing the news con­fer­ence about the EM­BD case, Row­ley added, “Let me just tell you some­thing, to­day I have dis­charged the pub­lic’s in­ter­est, I’ve looked af­ter the pub­lic’s in­ter­est, good day!” he de­clared as he end­ed the me­dia brief­ing and left the room, much to the de­light of his Cab­i­net mem­bers who were in at­ten­dance.

In No­vem­ber last year, when Row­ley an­nounced the de­ci­sion of his Cab­i­net to ac­cept the SRC’s rec­om­men­da­tions, he ac­cept­ed that some mem­bers of the pub­lic would not be hap­py with the de­ci­sion.

“I bear that cross with­out fear of ret­ri­bu­tion,” he said then.

The Op­po­si­tion, whose mem­bers are al­so set to ben­e­fit from a pay rise, has cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly stat­ed that it was not in sup­port of ac­cept­ing the SRC’s rec­om­men­da­tions.

On Tues­day, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar lament­ed that the de­ci­sion was not de­bat­ed in Par­lia­ment.